SA’s rowers bag silver
LIKE two men possessed, Shaun Keeling and Lawrence Brittain had to row out of a “deep, dark, corner” over the last 500 metres, moving from fourth down the field to win the Olympic heavyweight pair silver medal on the Rodrigo de Freitas Lagoon in Rio de Janeiro yesterday.
The pair took an early lead over the first quarter of the race, but soon fell back as the unbeatable Kiwi crew of Hamish Bond and Eric Murray moved past them to take the lead.
The Italians moved into second, with Great Britain getting the advantage over the South Africans.
Half way through the course, Keeling and Brittain had to make a decision to make their move while lying in fourth place.
“Everyone was moving and we were actually losing speed there, then Lawrence called the move at the 1 000m when we were fourth and we started changing momentum because we were in a deep, dark corner there,” Brittain said.
The duo found that extra kick and started moving up the field, dropping the British crew before overtaking the Italians.
“We had a pretty good start to the race where we were leading for a bit, but the first 1 000 metres were very tough where we were struggling to find the rhythm,” Brittain said.
“Coming through the halfway mark we were sitting in fourth, the Aussies were coming back and it was all happening.
“We grew in confidence and relaxed a bit, and through the last 500 metres we managed to put the big, big work in, then suddenly we found ourselves in second and it was on.”
Another few metres to the course and the South African men could have caught the Kiwis, but instead Bond and Murray kept intact their eightyear unbeaten record of 69 victories.
New Zealand crossed the finish in 06:59.710 with the South Africans taking it home in 07:02.510, with the Italian pair of Giovanni Abagnale Marco di Costanzo bagging bronze.
Brittain and Keeling shared a hug as they climbed out of the boat as four years of hard work culminated in a medal they so desperately wanted.
“It sank in straight on the finish line, it was like ‘yeah, we are silver medallists’, it was an awesome work from us,” Brittain said.
“We had so much confidence, just before we went on we saw the rest of the team, all of them making A-finals, especially the four, we’ve been training against them all season.
“So it was nice to cheer for them, gave us the confidence and we put in a big performance.”
What made the performance the more special is that Brittain was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma less than two years ago.
Brittain beat the cancer before starting the arduous process of getting back into shape to challenge for a seat in the men’s pair boat.
South Africa could be in for more rowing medals after the other four boats also booked their places for the finals.
Both the men’s and women’s lightweight double sculls crews powered their way into today’s finals, winning their respective semi-finals.
The women’s pair of LeeAnn Persse and Kate Christowitz got the crews in the mood for racing, finishing their semi-final in third place for a final berth.
The surprise of the morning came from the men’s four boat of Jake Green, David Hunt, Jonty Smith, and Vincent Breet, who finished second in their race a day after winning the repechage.
It was all-round classy performances from all the crews, making history and giving South Africa four more shots at the medals.
James Thompson and John Smith could add a men’s lightweight double sculls medal to the gold they won as members of the lightweight coxless fours from London 2012.